December is normally wet. December 2017 was nearly bone dry. The only rain was a brief shower early one Thursday morning. The result: deep concern that the drought had returned and skate mileage that rivals mid-summer.

The previous December record, 2016, was swept away by over 100 miles.

Speed held surprisingly steady. In December, if it doesn't rain, it gets cold. It felt slow.

Needless to say, I met my annual goal but that is the subject for another post in another thread.

December and January were awful for skating. Tons of rain in December derailed me, and all of the stuff I put off doing in December to break 3000 miles, using every good weather day, has caught up with me in January.

Orange represents miles on my longboards/skateboards and magenta represents skating on quads and inline skates.

I did a bit a double take when I saw that 500 miles for January. I really wasn't trying. It did rain, although not as much as need and I deliberately cut back.

I think what pushed up the numbers is an unusual amount of hiking and some bonus bike rides just to run errands.

This year, I'm cutting back my cycling commutes from 3-4 week to just two. The should reduce the numbers but I am also finding that makes them more consistent. I can choose which days I skate based on the weather and other concerns so even though it did rain, I got in all the skate commutes I had intended.

February should be good too. The rain has stopped again and it is crazy warm for a "winter" month.

February was strikingly dry. This is normally a wet month and we hardly got a drop until the very end. As a result, I got in lots of skating and had no reason at all to switch to the bike. Total totals down mostly just due to a shorter month. I did lose one day in the last week due to heavy rain.

March has been much wetter so far. I've already lost one Friday Night skate and every skate outing planned next week is at risk. We need the rain but fingers crossed that there are some dry gaps I can exploit. I did skated three commutes this week in defiance of the twice weekly 2018 plan but wasn't sure I was going to get any skating in next week.

Started commuting to work on skates and longboards mid Feb instead of bicycling. Skated 50 days in a row, which is some kind of record for good weather and just missing the bad stuff.

Anyway...308 miles of skating in March. For me, any month over 300 miles is a winner.

My commute is 4.2 miles if I skate directly to/from work. I usually add a lap in City Park on the way home which gives me a daily total of 11 miles. Then I do a longer skate on my off days. On days where it got dark or rained at quitting time I used a bike share to get home.

Started commuting to work on skates and longboards mid Feb instead of bicycling. Skated 50 days in a row, which is some kind of record for good weather and just missing the bad stuff.

Anyway...308 miles of skating in March. For me, any month over 300 miles is a winner.

My commute is 4.2 miles if I skate directly to/from work. I usually add a lap in City Park on the way home which gives me a daily total of 11 miles. Then I do a longer skate on my off days. On days where it got dark or rained at quitting time I used a bike share to get home.

Welcome to the skate-to-work club! That's awesome! 50 consecutive skate days? Definitely more that I've done. I find I need to schedule a down or at least lower key day before and after my big Sunday workout. That isn't to see that I always do this but I can tell my performance degrades if push hard for too may consecutive days.

The rain came back in March but managed to work around most of the rain days. Only planning on two round commute per week helps. Somehow managed to avoid Sunday rainouts.

Totals are down about 100 miles from March 2017 but it really isn't comparable. March 2017 was the last full month of unemployment before starting the current job. Year over year won't starting making sense until May.

I did have to slip in a few bike rides when it was just too wet to skate. The last one was perhaps noteworthy. I was riding to work on wet roads but with not active rain. Just over half-way, I got a flat. No big deal. I carry proper equipment for this. Then it started to rain. As I changing the tube in the drizzle, I reached for the inflater and CO2 canister and discovered that the C02 cannister was too wide to fit into the inflater. In 20 years this has never happened. I ended up walking a little over a mile with the bike, sometimes carrying it because there was no air at all in the back tire, taking the bike on a bus (first time ever), transferring to Light Rail with bike (also first time ever) before finally making it to work. The bike is actually still at the office. I now have everything I need to fix the tire. There just hasn't been the right mix of wet but not pouring rain where I would prefer to ride the bike home. In good weather, skate always trump bike.

...I reached for the inflater and CO2 canister and discovered that the C02 cannister was too wide to fit into the inflater....

Once in my life I had the same type of issue. I was packing for a bike ride around our big local lake - about 150 miles. I didn't feel like carrying CO2 and a bike pump, so I tossed the CO2 on my desk at home and carried the pump since I could get multiple punctures during that ride as the roads can be full of debris in places. I was riding a road racing bike with very narrow, high pressure tires. I always carry an extra tube and patches.

At roughly 105 miles I got a piece of wire in the rear tire. Repaired it. Began inflating when the pump - a really nice one - blew an "O" ring. I could clearly see in my mind's eye my CO2 lying on my desktop. I was in the middle of nowhere. So i took the pump apart and rearranged some O-Rings to get low pressure capability. For 25 miles I limped along careful to not hit any trash until finally reaching a fuel station with an air hose.

Once in my life I had the same type of issue. I was packing for a bike ride around our big local lake - about 150 miles. I didn't feel like carrying CO2 and a bike pump, so I tossed the CO2 on my desk at home and carried the pump since I could get multiple punctures during that ride as the roads can be full of debris in places. I was riding a road racing bike with very narrow, high pressure tires. I always carry an extra tube and patches.

At roughly 105 miles I got a piece of wire in the rear tire. Repaired it. Began inflating when the pump - a really nice one - blew an "O" ring. I could clearly see in my mind's eye my CO2 lying on my desktop. I was in the middle of nowhere. So i took the pump apart and rearranged some O-Rings to get low pressure capability. For 25 miles I limped along careful to not hit any trash until finally reaching a fuel station with an air hose.

I'm surprised that worked. I considered hobbling to the nearest filling station (which wasn't all that near) but I figured there was no chance their air source would have a presta valve option.

A lot of work stress in April. Long hours during the week but the weekend threat mostly remained threat. I did skip out on one hike because more commitment then I could manage.

No rain, so no biking. Actually, a couple a Saturdays I probably would have the used the bike but it was at work, which is where it remains. I need to arrange an intentional ride back since an opportunistic ride back on account of rain is unlikely before September.

I'm surprised that the volume and speed of skating was a high as is recorded. It sure felt like I tired and slow and missing here and there but it was more consistent than that.

This month the work stress is easing off. Maybe I can get my sleep schedule more back in sync so I can reduce the tired factor.

Comparing with May of 2017, the first thing that jumps out is: I despise the way Garmin has neutered "progress summary". Looks at all the data I can't see any more! And I can't compare skating because it is contaminated with scooter data.

Anyway, it looks like total distance is up. This is slightly surprising since I cut back on commute skates but I guess not going and business trips is a bigger factor.

Hopefully, next month's stats will be more meaningful because Garmin will have fixed their code (YR).